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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Grazin' In the Grass-Friends of Distinction-1970

When we got our first UHF commercial station here in the Cincinnati area in 1968, WXIX-TV, it did not broadcast on weekends except in the evenings. For a brief period in 1970, however, they offered a unique experiment which I believe to have been a syndicated package offered to other such stations around the country. It was called THE MUSIC CONNECTION and pre-saged MTV as well as those high cable all-music channels by more than a decade. THE MUSIC CONNECTION was literally a radio-like playing of then popular songs with WMP-style graphics as visuals. If I recall correctly it ran overnight on Friday nights and all day Saturday until CREATURE FEATURE started in the evening around 7. I kept it on as background music for reading, eating, cleaning, talking on the phone and just generally lazing around. The fun part was watching for those rare instances when THE MUSIC CONNECTION played actual music videos! I recall one from Santana, several from the ubiquious German show BEAT CLUB and two specific ones--"Goin' Up the Country" by Canned Heat and this one, Hugh Masekela's "Grazin' in the Grass" as done by the 5th Dimension-like group, the Friends of Distinction. I've enjoyed this version ever since.

2 comments:

OMFG!! Music Connection!! For the past 30 years I have been insisting to everyone I know that such a show existed on WXIX when it first went on the air. You are the first and only person I've ever known who also remembers it. Thank you!!

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About Me

First published in 1968 (I was 9!), I have been writing professionally part-time for more than two decades. I have been freelancing for various authors, editors and publishers for the past three years on the behind-the-scenes tasks of writing.